29
by elliana
Summary: --COMPLETE-- I am Experiment 29. I do not feel. I do not hope. In a whitewashed world of white lab coats and an antiseptic stench, I am alone. Much better than it sounds. Please R&R, it's my first FanFic. --COMPLETE--
1. Prolouge

**Hey all. This is my first fic ever. So please, no flames. Just review. Constructive criticism, mind you. Anyway, this story will get so much better. I promise. **

**Happy reading!**

_**Ellie**_

I don't remember much about the before. I know there was a feeling, a certain security. I think it was something like happiness, but I cannot be sure. All I know is any and all feelings are bad. And just masking them is not effective. Quite the opposite, in fact. Covering them up just allows them to fester, and grow. No, you must shove and compress the feelings until they resemble nothing of what they were. And even this is not enough.

You must feel the deepest pain. A soul-splitting, torturous pain. Then you know what these feelings will cost you.

Then, you can suffocate them, with all you have left. You cannot, **must not**, feel. Never a twang of sorrow, nor a drop of anger.

Love. Anger. Fear. Sorrow. Guilt. Pain. Sympathy. Respect. Remorse.

All of these are weaknesses, and must be punished as such.

This is what the whitecoats have taught me.

Without any contradictions to their statements, this I take to be true.

I am Experiment 29.

I do not feel.

I do not hope.

In a whitewashed world of white lab coats and an antiseptic stench, I am alone.


	2. Chicken?

**This chapters**** short too, sorry again. Please review, it makes me feel loved xD**

**I promise the chapters will get longer and, more importantly _better,_ soon.**

**Happy reading!**

_**Ellie**_

**MAX P.O.V**

"Iggy, what_ is_ this? I mean, it tastes like chicken. But people say that about all types of meat, right? Personally I don't care what type of meat it is. As long as its not, like, rabid. But, sometimes-"

"NUDGE!" Gazzy yelled. Simultaneously, Iggy clamped his hand over Nudges ever-moving mouth.

"Yes, Nudge, it is most definitely chicken." I said wearily. _Squirrels are kind of like chicken, right?_ I thought to myself bitterly.

I picked up my food again, (What? You think we have the luxury of silverware? Count your blessings.) but I caught Angel grinning evilly.

Oh damn.

"Hey Nudge?" she called sweetly.

"Yup?" she said, massaging her jaw which Iggy had only just released.

"Max just had a very interesting thought… You see—"

But she was cut off by a screech form Nudge. We all spun around and peered through the mouth of the cave.

Erasers.

Erasers 3000.

Inwardly, I groaned. How did they keep finding us? Always, they were chasing us. Where did they come from? Couldn't we get a moments peace?

These new guys could seamlessly morph from Human to Wolf, but could still retail their wolf-like abilities while in human form. They were stronger, faster, and altogether bad news.

They also outnumbered us at least 10-1. Do the math.

Just as I screamed "U and A!", I saw the leader whip out a gun.

For the second time in the past 5 minutes, I thought _Oh damn._ Only this time, the consequences were far more serious. Like, you know, death.

I didn't have time to let myself freak out. I saw him grin, well, wolfishly, cock the gun, and pull the trigger. Right before the shot found its target (my arm), I turned to Fang.

"Protect them. Don't fight." Even as I said these words I sensed the shot drawing nearer.

"Will… return." I managed, just as the dart met my forearm, and I heaved a sigh and succumbed to the darkness.

**Please review. ;**


	3. Whitewashed Rooms

**This ones**** a bit longer. Please enjoy, but review too.**

**Thanks to **_AngelFallen_** for being my first reviewer: Thanks for the first review, and the as to the second, I know. Originally, I intended Max to be hit by a bullet. I changed that, but forgot to change the verb. Thanks again!**

**Happy reading!**

_**Ellie**_

**FANG P.O.V**

I saw Max whirl around. We both froze when we saw the Erasers.

But these ones were newer. More advanced.

They had more agile bodies, sharper claws, more powerful weapons, and eviler grins. The better to kill us with.

All of us understood the fight was hopeless. We also understood we were trapped in a cave, and our enemies were about 10 seconds to blocking the exit.

We all sprinted out to the ledge, and Max opened her mouth to yell "U and A!" She never needed to, though. Without a second's hesitation, the flock took to the sky.

But I didn't. I saw the tranquilizer slice through the air, whistling a high-pitched note.

Towards Max.

My Max.

Our Max.

She turned to me, and began to fall.

"Protect them." She whispered, as gravity (combined with the sedative) got the best of her. "Don't fight. Will…"Her last word was forced. "Return." She said with a sigh.

She plummeted. I watched numbly as a clumsy Eraser snatched her, barely moments before her certain death. He looked up at me, smiling a lopsided grin.

"Don't worry. Little Birdie here just sacrificed herself. Be happy." Before I could fully appreciate what exactly had happened, a chopper swooped in, collected the Erasers along with my precious Max, and sped away.My throat closed.

I fell.

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**MAX P.O.V**

When I finally regained consciousness, I was greeted with blinding white walls and my favorite smell of antiseptic. So, I was back at the School. This, at least, answered a few questions:

One, the Erasers were not escapees from the School and were still reporting back to this horrible institution.

Two: It was only a tranquilizer from the gun, meaning they had no intention of killing me. Meaning they wanted to use me as a human guinea pig.

Well, a 98-human-and-2-bird guinea pig.

I shuddered at the thought, and instead turned my focus to escaping. (Call me ambitious.) I mentally called out for Angel, but I was met with only silence.

Good, she was not in range. That meant the escaped.

Now, where was the exit…assuming there was one, of course. These whitecoats were crazy. I would not put it past them to lock me in a room without doors or windows and gleefully record how long it took before I began punching in walls. They might even bet each other on my reactions.

Shaking my head, I cleared my mind of these thoughts. They would do me no good.

As my eyes swept the room, I suddenly froze. I was not alone. This was definitely different. After a quick once-over, and decided she wasn't an Eraser or one of the Flock members.

For it was a she. She looked to be my age, but with the whitecoats who knew how old she really was. She had a long mane of the raven-black hair, tan skin, and a stony face. She was staring blankly at a wall.

I made a small noise, surprising even myself. It was a cross between a sigh (at finding someone who could be like me) and pity (at imagining what she could have been through)

The girl, however, barely moved. She simply rotated her body so she could see me, or as well as she could. She was strapped to a metal table, much like I was.

"Who are you?" I asked.

**29's P.O.V**

I felt no need to be secretive to this newcomer, so I murmured: "29."

She looked at me blankly. Being the wonderfully communicative person I am, I gestured to the bracelet around my wrist. She craned her neck to read it.

**Exp 29** _AHH, SOC, __BIS _14 years, Room 217XG5

When she had finished reading it, (and had gleaned all the information she felt she could from it) she laid back on her table.

"I'm Max." She said.

I nodded. I had been extremely intrigued when she had been placed in my room. Due to the tranquilizer wound my enhanced vision had picked out, I guessed she had either been feisty in the room change proposition, or had been recently captured.

Either way, she was a captive, and therefore similar to me.

Yet not so.

Her eyes. They were feverant with emotion. Emotions I could not even begin to comprehend. I saw fear, then relief (at what I can only guess), then shock. I briefly dwelled on what it might feel like to have emotions, but I quickly banished the thought. What-ifs are useless, not to mention hindering.

Nonetheless, it was her eyes that set her apart from me. Though they were bright blue, they displayed no icy coolness that I had seen in eyes of her same shade. They weren't warm, either. I guess they were normal, though having essentially spent life in a prison, the concept of "normality" was slightly beyond my grasp.

My eyes couldn't look like that. Not that I had ever seen them. But I could easily deduce my eyes were deep, dark, and emotionless.

Just like me.

**Review ****xD**


	4. Plans and a Surprise

**A/N** Review please.

**29 P.O.V**

"Do you call yourself Experiment 29? Surely you must call yourself something else…?" She ended it as a question. I shook my head, once again pointing to the bracelet, this time covering up everything but the two numbers with my fingers.

"Did the whitecoats screw with your vocal chords or something, or do you just not speak?""No need." I said simply. Though in my head my thoughts are in full sentences and such, when I actually speak it is in as few words a humanly possible.

I feel no need to speak to people. It's not that I desire sympathy. The Whitecoats are so awed by my apparent "inability" to utter as much as one syllable, that they have quite forgotten to keep up with most of the other torturous experiments they love to run. I see it as a distraction. And for the past 2 years, it's worked remarkably well.

**MAX P.O.V**

"So, what do you do all day?" It sounded as if I was visiting some foreign culture. Like I was an eager student, writing some sort of paper about a culture and their way of life.

But it was nothing like this. We were two abused souls, thrust together by the whitecoats for reasons unknown. I thought that I might as well learn something about her. Perhaps we could help one another.

"Between tests, I mean." I clarified, catching her look.

She considered me for a moment, clearly debating something in her head. Evidently, one side won, because she reached into the pocket of her pants and removed a tattered and worn-out notebook. She tossed it to me, which I took as permission to read whatever was in it. Before I could open it, she made a distressed sound, and I turned to see her wildly reaching out for the book again. I returned it to her, feeling that this game was rather childish.

She leafed through the book for a few pages, until reaching a specific one. She threw the book back to be, saying simply "Forward."

I took this to mean only the pages after the one she had opened it to. I began scanning the pages.

There were maps.

Hundreds of them.

Rooms, arrows, peoples, offices, security systems, fire alarms, regular alarms, blueprints, outlines, everything.

On each page there were mazes of arrows and lines, seemingly escape routes. But each page, and the bottom corner, had either NES or TME written and underlined.

"Not enough speed or too many Erasers with tranquilizers." She voiced, guessing what I had been about to ask.

"So they are plans." I breathed, astounded by the mere volume.

"Past six years." She said with an indifferent shrug. We lapsed into another silence, until I reached a promising page.

"Wait. How about this one?" I said. It involved kicking some Eraser and whitecoat ass, but it was clear she would not have enough speed to evacuate without being caught. But, hey, I've got wings!

"I can help." I said simply. I squirmed, stretching the straps around me to allow me to raise my back off the metal. I slowly stretched out my wings.

I had forgotten how glorious it felt after having them tucked in. It was like sitting on a foot for a few hours, almost forgetting it was there, and then stretching it out.

I waited for the inevitable gasp, outburst, or exclamation at some point. I don't care if you live at the School. Successful Avian Hybrids are extremely rare, and should cause some feeling of awe. Besides, even if you've seen one before, a 14 year old girl with tawny _wings_ erupting out of her back must give you some sort of a shock.

I craned my head, but I only saw her shaking her head again. She also readjusted her body, and repeated my movements.

Her large wings practically exploded from her back. They were black. And not the midnight, purpleish gleam that Fang had. No, these were the deepest black I had ever seen.

I know that it's hard to imagine the difference between "black" and "really black", and then "extremely black". But when you stared at her wings it almost seemed as if they were no longer a color, but merely an….illusion of sorts. It's very difficult to explain.

When they had both fully extended from her back (her wingspan was huge- larger than Fangs by at least 3 feet on both sides), she looked at me again.

"Still, not enough speed."


	5. Poisonous Encounter

**Please review...I have up to Chapter 12 all typed up but if no one's reading this its pretty pointless to keep updating. Just a few words, tell me you're reading it, etc.**

**Thanks so much, and happy reading!**

**_Ellie_**

**29 POV**

She clearly didn't get it. I had wings too. However, instead of whipping out one of the many witty comments I had available, I simply repeated the three words that had kept me locked inside this insane hell hole.

"Not enough speed."

**MAX P.O.V**

My head was spinning. Great. Just splendid. Now, I had not only Fang, but now a _female-_ black winged-silent-unemotional-freaky-mutant. Perfect.

My eyes flicked back to the page, then widened.

"I know it! I have super-speed!" I slapped myself on the forehead for not thinking of it sooner…well, I tried to slap myself on the forehead. The stupid wrist restraints only made me look moronic.

"It might not be as fast as it usually is if I have baggage, but I'm sure it can be done!" I said, growing more excited by the minute. I turned to see her expression. It was as impassive as ever, but when I looked deep, deep, _deep_ into her grey eyes I saw a flicker of something. It was gone too quickly to identify: but it was something. Before I could ask her about it, everything went dead.

Not around me: in 29's face. It had gone from freakishly unemotional and impassive to….dead. She seemed to be a sculpture, and an unemotional one at that. But she was…gone. Her very life winked out in front of me.

I nearly had a heart attack when she spoke. Imagine being in a morgue, and having a corpse open it's mouth to chat.

"White coats." She whispered. "Asleep." I got her drift and laid myself down on the cold metal bed. She did the same.

A painfully thin blond white coat entered, tensing at the very sight of 29. She stiffly walked to the bed, pulled a screeching chair up behind her, and gracefully sat down. Her back was to me, so I could open my eyee a crack and see both of them clearly enough.

"Experiment 29, we go through this everyday." She said with a sigh, and the countenance of one who knew there was a long trial ahead. "One word. It could honestly be any word ever spoken in the history of humanity. Hell, any _noise_ ever emitted by any creature, living or otherwise. Please?" She pleaded. 29's ashen face continued to resemble a corpse.

As if as a second thought, the blond whitecoat reached out, checking for a pulse. Apparently she got one, for she pulled back from the body with a sigh. Her face suddenly went though a rapid change, as she switched her tactic.

"Damnit, 29 I know you can talk. I've seen countless MRI's of your brain and CT's of your throat. No way you spoke for 8 years, even sparingly, then suddenly lost all ability to communicate. If this muteness is your way of rebelling, it won't last forever. We will beat that voice out of you even if the first noise you make is a shriek of agony." She had leaned closer to 29 with each word, and by the end the words were being hissed rather than spoken.

Still, 29 had not flinched, blinked, or even slightly shifted a muscle during her speech. Both of them had apparently forgotten my existence.

When 29 still refused to respond, the tooth-pick blond removed a nasty looking syringe out of her coat pocket. It looked like it was filled with lemonade, but something tells me it wasn't quite so sweet.

"Well, by now you certainly know the drill. Poison, once injected, will attack and infect each and every cell it encounters, and will subsequently form an army of diseased cells. Your body will slowly shut down, your immune system will crash due to the invaders. Just before it actually kills you, I will inject the antidote. To avoid this wonderful process, just say No. Or, anything really." She paused, to see if 29 would follow her advice. The girl didn't even flinch.

The whitecoat jabbed 29 in one swift movement. As soon as I had seen her wind up, I had closed my eyes.

Hey, needles freak me out. They'd do the same to you if you had grown up in a torturous lab.

Apparently, this didn't apply to 29. When the needle punctured the skin, she merely turned to gaze at the liquid oozing into her skin. This was a clear act of defiance, showing the whitecoat she was quite aware of her surroundings. This only infuriated the woman more. I could've sworn 29 rolled her eyes when the whitecoat spoke again.

"Pain receptors reach the brain in 3…..2……1….." 29 sent her another cold glance. The whitecoat watched the clock for exactly 2 minutes and 7 seconds. She (seemingly reluctantly) removed another syringe, this time with a clear liquid filling.

"Body shuts down in 5 seconds…" she stabbed 29 again.

"Antidote subdues poison…..now." 29 looked at her arm where the second syringe had entered. There were a few seconds of silence, before the Whitecoat said with a sigh,

"Be back tomorrow. Just…think about it." She seemed almost…sad? No. That could certainly not be. I shook my head in defiance. Just staying at the school for too long and already my thoughts were being affected.

The door clicked behind the blond-haired woman, and all was quiet again.


	6. That Should Do It

**FANG P.O.V**

I felt one strong grip holding my left side, and a stronger one on my right. Well, that was certainly good news. I had sides. Maybe I hadn't been completely destroyed in the fall.

"Fang, c'mon…" Iggy. It was coming from my right side. But my vision was stilled blacked out…I was so tired. I just wanted to sleep…

"Fang, please! We won't be able to rescue Max without you." A teary Angel. She certainly knew how to wake someone up.

Just Max's name woke me up, and for a second I was startled.

Woah, don't get any ideas. Max was _our_ leader, and _we_ needed her.

"Fang!" Angel cheered. I felt her arms around my neck. I slowly eased my eyes open, only to be blinded by light. I opened them again, slowly this time. The colorful blobs slowly morphed into the Flock around me, all with worried expressions. I eased myself off the ground, stretching my arms and legs as I went.

"Fang?" Angel said quietly. I turned to her. Her face was full of fear, as well as downright curiosity. "Why did you just…stop? I felt your mind one second, then you saw Max fall, and it was like…like…" Tears began to roll down her cheeks. I crouched on the floor and put my arms on her shoulders.

"Like you had died." Her voice came out as a whisper.

"I did die." I said simply. "With Max gone…I don't know guys. The thought of my—I mean, _our_ Max at the school, alone. It freaked me out." I put on a brave face. "But the only thing we can do is get her back. And…" My mind was blank. All I was thinking was_ Max! How the hell do you do this leader thing? They all expect me to come up with this brilliant plan…Max, we need you here. How did I let you go? What am I supposed to do?_ I felt Angel's small hand clutch mine. I vaguely realized she had been reading my thoughts.

"Believe." She whispered.

**I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-**

**29 P.O.V**

After the horrible Blond woman left, I turned to Max to continue our conversation."Super-speed?" I questioned. Instead of answering me, she just stared.

Well, I guess she had never witnessed lethal poison be injected into someone's body, have them endure as much of it as physically possible, then only barely get the antidote, and to do so without moving a muscle.

Welcome to my life.

But seriously. It's not that interesting. I stopped feeling physical pain ages ago, and emotional shortly after. Max shook her head in bewilderment.

"How did you….never mind. Let's go—but then, you will explain.""Not much to say." I said with a shrug. I didn't want to get her hopes up.

She held out my most recent and most-likely-to-be-successful plan. NES had been replaced by SS."I can fly at speeds up to 400 mph. Add a passenger, I could probably only do about 300. That could do it, no?"

**MAX P.O.V**

"That could do it, no?" I asked tentatively.

"Yes."She said slowly, choosing her words carefully. "That should do it."


	7. A Plan, Like a Dream

**A/N** Thanks to my third reviewer, _venom.abyss_. Definately read her story.  
Since I'm going out all day today I'm going to put up three chapters now.  
**Review!!**

**MAX P.O.V**

Our plan was relatively simple.

Oh, you think I'm going to explain it to you?

Oh no. I have no idea whose hands this might fall into. Call me paranoid, but it's a pretty kick-ass plan and we may use it again.

Anyway, 29 and I found ourselves in the School's "courtyard". It was quite pathetic, actually. It was a way for the whitecoats to "get back to nature" though for a living they tampered with human and animals DNA, plus all the plants were fake. I hardly believe synthetic trees are "natural".

But I had very little time to dwell. 29 shot me a look. After knowing her for merely two days, her looks' meanings were becoming more and more obvious. Perhaps it was the fact that we're both 14 year old female bird hybrids. Something like that.

I hooked her two arms around my waist, and she gripped her wrists tightly. Just as soon as we had assumed this positions, we heard three doors on either side of us snap open. I wasted no time and snapped out my wings, thrusting myself into superspeed. I knew I was risking a lot, going into overdrive without any sort of headstart, but I hardly had had a choice.

Suddenly, I heard a shot crack out from behind us. I froze, but 29 urged me with a simple "Missed!" I picked up my pace again. Once we got about 100 miles away, I glided down. It had been less than 2 minutes, and it would take quite a while for the Erasers to find them. I landed in a grassy knoll, and 29 released her grip. We stood for a moment, both lost in our own thoughts. Surprisingly, she spoke first.

"Thanks." It was simple. Straight to it, no beating around the bush. I like this girl.

"No problem. It was your plan, anyway." There was another smile, before I gestured for her to sit.

"I just think you should know, before we arrive, about my….ahem…family." I proceded to tell her in great detail about every Flock member. I realized I had been talking about Fang for quite some time, so I quickly shut up.

"Shall we?" She nodded, and, synchronized, we both snapped out our wings.

I had compared her wings to Fang's. But they were even blacker when they weren't under the lights of the School. Hers gleamed, but not with that purple hue that Fang's had.

When he was flying, his wings in just the right light…any artist would kill to capture one of those moments. He was truly beautiful… I felt a smile cross my lips, until it froze.

Woah. No… Fang, beautiful? Where the _hell_ had that come from? I quickly pushed Fang to the back of my mind, and instead focused on 29.

She had begun to soar, flipping through the air with more grace than any dancer. Her raven hair whipped behind her. Her eyes..well, they were still emotionless and cold. But something new had been woken…something….alive.

She did a few more tricks, truly showing off her expertise. Hey, as long as she's on our side.

**Objective P.O.V**

The flock all showed signs of nervousness. Nudge was silent, ( a sure sign something was amiss), Angel was fingering her curls, Gazzy refused to eat, ( a definite first), and Iggy hadn't made any jokes since they had hatched the plan. And Fang? Well…he looked like he always did. Cool, quiet, together, and alert. But he was quite the opposite on the inside.

**Fang POV**

Oh Jesus. This plan is awful. Horribly thought out, so many details had been disregarded, and therefore most likely it will be poorly executed… Oh Max, why have I failed you? The younger kids need you as a mother, Iggy needs a sister, and I need….Okay, screw the family analogy.But that doesn't change anything. This plan is most definitely going to result in one of us back at the school.

I just hope that it's me.

**Max POV**

I don't know quite how it had happened. But somehow, something deep within my subconscious had begun to lead me to my family.

Okay, where a _certain member_ of my family was. I chose to ignore the implications, and landed swiftly on the ledge of the cave I knew that he—_they_, I amended silently—were.

**Fang POV**

Suddenly, I felt it. I won't even try to explain it because I barely can justify it in my mind. But she was free. Max was free and she was near.

I whipped my head around, purely on impulse, and like a dream, she landed, her tawny wings outstretched. My breath caught in my throat, and I dared no blink for fear she would disappear.

**Angel POV**

I dunno how it happened, but as I was going over my portion of the plan, Max seriously appeared on the ledge. My mind had been so focused on my job that I hadn't noticed her mind approaching. I nearly cried, as all of us flung ourselves at her, Iggy included. Well…you guessed it. Fang didn't. But I swear to God, Fang smiled. And that shows more emotion than all of our hugs and kisses combined.

**Max POV**

After the younger kids and Iggy had finished with their hugs, I finally extricated them from me. I swear, if it had been a scene in a movie it couldn't have been more dramatic. We turned towards eachother, and our gazes locked. Neither of us moved, neither of us breathed. But in that split second, so much happened I can't even describe it.

But, like all other things in my life, the blissful moment was cruelly shattered.

"Guys, hate to ruin this. I've got another prescence. And it's black. Jet black."

**Just think about this**: **The amount of time it will take you to review is nothing compared to how long I've been writing this story...first in my head, then my notebook, then the computer, then editing, etc...  
Review!**

**-ellie**


	8. Explaining time?

**MAX POV**

At first, I felt my heart sink. We used superspeed! How on earth could they find…us…wait.

"29?" I called out tentatively. "If that's you, you can come up…" Oh god, please be her…. I unknowingly held my breath, ignoring the confused stares.

I felt my breath catch in my throat when I saw a hand hauling a body onto the ledge. I let it out, though, when I reocgnizd 29's midnight black hair flash when she pulled herself into a standing position.

She slowly brought her gaze up to meet mine, and she nodded curtly to me, showing no sign of acknowledgement to the other Flock members. She turned around, facing the cave's mouth. She swung her legs over the edge. She seemed frozen to that spot, other than the occasional swinging of her legs.

I turned to the rest of the flock.

"Explaining time?" I suggested.

"I should think so!" Gazzy.

"Um..yes, that would be nice…." Angel.

"Totally! How did you escape? And who is she? Is she a hybrid? An Avian one too? Did you rescue her? Does she have any cool powers? Can she talk? What— " You guessed it….Nudge.

"Damn straight." Iggy. No time to reprimand him for his language.

A curt nod. Fang.

I gestured for them to sit, and I did likewise. I told them everything that had happened since I had been caught. Not surprisingly, 29 didn't twitch the entire time. I left out the poison part, for the sake of the younger kids. When they called it a night, I would tell the rest to Iggy and Fang. They certainly deserved to know the depth of 29's withdrawal.

**29 POV**

When Max landed on the cave's ledge and I saw the mixture of fear, disbelief, and overall joy on their faces, I quietly slipped away. While I waited on a ledge some 20 feet below, I started to think.

_Maybe I should leave. After all, Max and her Flock certainly have an attachment to each other. I would only strain it, or at least be a pest. Who needed another emotionless freak if you had Fang, as Max had (quite lovingly, in fact) described Fang as "utterly and completely, infuriatingly, silent…"? Besides, it's not like anyone would miss me…__But what if I _did_ stay? Could I handle the emotion in all of them on a daily basis? Wait, of course I could handle it! I didn't starve myself of emotion for 6 years and them not be able to handle an emotionally stressful encounter. I would simply remain impassive, and attempt to be as helpful as possible. Maybe I could…change? Was I capable of such a thing?_

But I was still 29. Maybe not Experiment 29, but 29 just the same.

**Keep in mind that the next chapter is 2 years from this point.**

Review!!


	9. Two Year Truce

**A/N Be warned…this is a** _2 year jump_** from the last chapter.** **I did this because I wanted the plot to move along. **

**Review please!**

**Happy reading,**

**_Ellie_**

**MAX POV**

I am proud to say it's been 2 year since my capture. And guess what? Every last second of these past two years have been completely devoid of flyboys, attacks, eraser attacks, brain attacks, or, my personal favorite, the Voice.

It's been….amazing. The last time I heard from it, it said _"Time for a break, Maximum. The world has been saved when you destroyed the __Itex__ in Germany. Only a few weak schools remain, much like the one you were held in. Another finalizing mission will be required some day, but for now, enjoy __yourself.__"_

Trust the voice to throw in that last bit of information. But oh well.

29 has opened up a little. And, by a little, I mean she's as talkative as Fang is on a very bad day. But, surprisingly enough, that's a major improvement.

As for Fang and I, well….we're confused, is the best way to put it. I think we're together, I think he does too, but we're both to embarrassed or maybe to damn stubborn to make the first move.

But I do think 29 is opening up to Iggy the most. She seems to speak the most (and with the best grammar) when he's around.

Anyway, we're at Dr.M's (I'm not yet to the whole "Mom" thing. Maybe some day) with Ella. We've been here for the past year, and school started about 4 months ago. Everything seems to be going pretty well.

But, if you know anything about our lives, such happiness can never last.

I woke this morning with a bad feeling. A really bad one. Like the ones I had before the Germany incident.

And I had forgotten just how bad those feel.

**29 POV**

Another day of school. To me, the past two years have pretty much been a blur. One day, I'm strapped to a cool metal operating table like every other day before that. The next, a blond haired mutant like me helps me escape.

I meet her family, The Flock as she calls it, and slowly (really slowly) become part of their group.

Not that it was an easy transition, mind you. Angel is cute, but my black mind (courtesy of the whitecoats) scares her a little, so she generally steers clear of me.

Gazzy's nice enough. He really seems intrigued by my Raven DNA. I tell him as much as I can to keep him happy.

Nudge….she's a talker.

Max is crazy strong, but really doesn't seem intimidated by my silence. (Thanks to Fang)

Fang? Well, we have a ton in common. We're both black haired and black winged mutants. We have olive skin. Phsyical attributes aside, we both know what it's like to just want to retreat into our own mind. He can read me pretty perfectly. Plus, we both understand the need to listen rather than speak.

Then there is Iggy. First of all, I am completely barren of all feelings. Yet, I feel…something. I have no idea what it is. Truthfully, I'm a little scared of it. But my training is trying to suppress it. But, for the first time in my life, I'm working to reverse my training.

After touring the country for a year, we all felt the need to settle down. So we did. At Dr. Martinez's house.

And that brings us here. It's 8:00 AM, and I'm dressed for school. I was just looking in the mirror, trying to deciper my cryptic eyes, when suddenly my thoughs turned to Iggy.

I felt the weirdest urge. My lips twitched….upwards. A smile? Had I actually considered smiling?Of course, I didn't _act_ on this impulse that my training regarded as ridiculous and weak.

But the fact that it happened? That's one hell of a step.

**I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-**

**School—****The**** Real Kind**

**OBJECTIVE POV**

The lunchroom buzzed, as normal. Since the Flock had arrived, a few things had happened.

The three younger kids miraculously stayed out of trouble. For the most part.

Iggy made a ton of friends, but they weren't pitying him. They accepted his blindness as an attribute, not a handicap.

Max sat with the popular girls mostly. Though she may have looked like them, she acted very different. But she began to turn them down a bit, as well as turning _down_ the many boys who asked her out.

Fang hung out mostly with the emo music kids, and (of course) the girls flung themselves at him. He, as indifferent as ever, completely ignored them.

29 also hung out in that group. She was quiet as ever, but music really seemed to help her open up. She went by Kai at school, but the Flock still called her 29. It suited her more, and she didn't like disregarding what she had gone through. Her name was a constant reminder of the hellhole she had lived in, and escaped from.

Each Flock member sat down at their respective tables. Just as Max picked up her sandwich to begin eating, a shrill scream was hear, followed by an ever-increasing buzzing noise.

Without a moments hesitation, the guard that the Flock had learned to drop was suddenly back. Each member shot to their feet, into their instinctive fighting stance.

In one second, they had gone from a group of misfits with weird names in an otherwise normal school, to a kick ass Flock of mutant bird kids.

**That chapter did not turn out as well as I wanted it to.  
anyways please leave a review! just let me know you're reading it, what I can do better, etc.**


	10. Betrayal by one, Retreat by Another

**A/N I've been forgetting the Disclaimer for the past chapters. Even though this is FANfiction, so I really doubt it is nessecary. Oh well.  
**

**DISCLAIMER:**_ Recognize anything in this story? Then I didn't come up with it. The Flock, the School, the Voice...all James Patterson's._

**CLAIMER: **_See anything you don't recognize? It's mine. Like the plot and 29...thats it. xD_

**Thanks again for the couple more reviews !!  
Keep them coming, and happy reading!**

**-_ellie_**

**FANG POV**

As soon as I heard the scream and the familiar whirring sound, "Nick" vanished. Fang was back, and I was ready.

I turned to Max, but she mouthed a firm "No." I sighed. She mouthed again: "Too many innocents."

Her booming voice snapped across the room like a whip.

"U and A!" She called. Just as we all were prepared to break the bay windows in the lunchroom, I heard a cry come from my table. I turned around to see 29 looking worried. Well, as worried as she could look.

"Iggy!" she yelled. Immediately, we all scanned the room.

Where the hell was he?

**MAX POV**

As we were about to take of, 29 alerted us of Iggy's absence.

I hesitated.

"I can get him. Meet…" 29 looked at me with a questioning face.

_The cave you all first met in._

I repeated it to 29. She nodded and took off, ignoring the cries from the stunned students. Then I almost choked.

_Voice?_

_Time to talk later, Maximum. Get out, now._

I didn't think twice, and I nodded to my flock to take off

**29 POV**

I sprinted through the hallways, taking out about 5 flyboys as they came at me. After a quick scan I determined there were only about 10 left. I stopped for a second, finished the rest of them off with a few well-aimed kicks, and let my thoughts turn to Iggy.

My legs suddenly brought me to the auditorium. I opened the door, but what I saw caused me to stagger backwards. Iggy was in the auditorium.

But he was fiercely kissing an obnoxious blond girl.

My Iggy. He was the reason I had turned around. He was the only thing that kept me from returning to the comforts of my own mind.

I felt my old training start to resurface, that which I had tried to bury. But this time, I didn't fight it.

I welcomed the numbness.

**Iggy POV**

"Iggy?" I heard an obnoxiously high voice callout. "I left my phone somewhere in the auditorium…you have the best ears in the whole school…if I called it do you think you could find it?" I could almost see the puppy-dog face. Almost.

"Yeah, sure." I could tell who she was, but I had nothing else to do and why not help someone if you could?

"I think it's around here somewhere…" she said, as she led me down a few rows into the darkened hall. I accidently bumped into her. I had been straining my ears to here the alleged phone ring, so I had not been paying attention to my immediate whereabouts.

"Oops, sorry." I said, hurriedly backing away.

"Don't be." She breathed in my ear. Thanks to my sightless eyes, I couldn't figure out what was happening. She pressed her mouth to mine and wrapped her arms around my neck.

I didn't know what to do. I prayed for someone to come in and save me.

How wrong I was.

When I heard the door open, I pulled back, silently worshiping my savior.

But when I heard the intruder's voice, I froze.

It was 29.

But it seemed worse than that. All the training we had done for the past two years had evaporated. She was cold and aloof. Kai was mostly certainly gone, and so was 29.

_Experiment_ 29 was back.

**Maria's POV (girl Iggy's kissed)**

Look, call me desperate, but I took advantage of a blind guy. He's cool, hot, and adorably oblivious. But when that freaky silent emo chick busted in, I wanted to kill her.

But when I looked closer at her face, I thought _she_ was going to kill _me_.

**29 POV**

I cleared my throat. This was it. He needed to know who I was and what he had done. The numbness could wait.

I wasn't going to completely abandon the outside world.

Yet.

"You know, Ig, I really did wonder where you could possibly be that you might not hear Max call a U and A." I felt a bizarre sense of pleasure at the shock on his face.

"Yes, this school is infested with Flyboys." I said this slowly, as if I was talking to a child. So it wasn't really infested--I had taken them all out quite easily. But he didn't need to know that.

I turned to go, but turned back again. "The door's ten steps to your left. I'll meet you there. See, even the silent freak has some regard for loyalties." I said quietly. I felt the impact of what I had just witnessed finally hit me, and I felt tears begin to well up.

God damn it, tears? I've never cried since I was brought to the School. No way was _he_ going to start me crying.

I felt my old training come over me, and I tightly bound my feelings. I banished them into my subconscious.

Kai was gone. 29…no. **Experiment** 29 had returned.

**Iggy POV**

I was so disoriented.

_This can't be happening. No way. It just can't! _I mentally screamed. My mind was in such turmoil that I forgot about the blond chick. 

"Holy shit." She breathed.

"What?" I asked bitterly.

"When she saw us, it was like her face had seriously been turned to stone. Like, even stonier than before. I was sure she had died."

My fears had been correct. 29 was back.

I sprinted to the exit.

Not surprisingly, it was exactly where 29 had said it would be. When I reached the platform outside, my hearing picked up an impatient tapping of the foot.

I reached out and found 29's arm. She violently shook me off her.

"Let's go." She said icily. Though the words themselves meant nothing, her tone was one not to be mistaken.

"No." I said, replacing my hand back on her shoulder, "**We** need to talk." She once again shook my hand off her shoulder.

"**We** never need to do anything together again." She hissed. I shuddered at the coldness in her words. She repeated the directions o the cave monotonously.

I couldn't see her face, but I sensed this was no time to push it. We soundlessly snapped out their wings and took to they sky.

We flew to the cave in a cold silence.

My updates won't be three/day anymore. Probablly only one today, unless I get reviews.

Please review! 


	11. Square One

**A/N Big thanks to all of the new reviewers...I guess chapter 10 was a pretty big hit xD Thanks for the thoughts, they do mean a lot.**

**About 29 opening up...just wait. Within the next 2 chapters or so, you really understand her. Keep reading, don't give up on this story.  
My goal is to get to a total of 10 reviews before I post chapter 12, but this is a short chapter, so I'm not expecting too much.**

**DISCLAIMER: **_See the last chapter. I'm not going to repeat myself._

**Thanks again everyone, and happy reading!**

**-_ellie_**

**MAX POV**

It's not that I don't trust 29 to bring Iggy home. But the possibilities were endless….we had never seen 29 fight, so what if she got caught with too many Erasers? And she wasn't used to guiding Iggy, so anything could happen to him…

I let out a breath I hadn't know I had been holding when they landed on the ledge. I let relief wash over me. But the relief was stopped cold when I saw their faces.

Iggy's was drawn and horribly worried, his sightless eyes darting around uselessly.

29's looked like it did when the whitecoat entered our room, 2 years ago.

Cold.

Emotionless.

Inhuman.

All I could say was : "What the hell happened?"

**Iggy POV**

"I don't want to talk about it?"I asked weakly.

"But-"

"Is she okay?"

"What did you do?"

"What did he do? What did _she_ do?"

Their questions spewed out. I held up my hand, and they fell silent.

"We're all fine." I said firmly.

There was a silence, until Max said. "Why doesn't Gazzy, Angel, and Nudge go to sleep? It is late." It was only 5:00PM. But they understood. I heard them retreat to the back of the cave, and Max led me out to the ledge were myself, Max, Fang, and 29 all sat.

When neither 29 nor I spoke, Fang spoke up.

"Kai, what the hell happened?"

"29." She said softly. "29." She more firmly. "Not Kai. Never Kai. 29. Experiment 29."

Back to square one.

**FANG POV**

I don't know what happened, but Iggy had better have a good explanation. Kai (I still refuse to call her a number.) hasn't said a word since her declaration of her name change.

She wasn't dead yet. But, damnit, she was dying.

Faster than any one of us could save her.


	12. A Clearing and a Declaration

**A/N Thanks again for the reviews--heres another chapter. Please, I want to get to 13 reviews before I put up the next chapter. Again, think of how long it took me to write this versus how long it will take you to review...**

**Besides, it's only a request of like 4 reviews...you can do it, I believe in you xD**

**Some people are worried about 29...she'll come back, I promise. Just not yet. This story can't be all happy. I'm not that much of a pushover xD**

**Happy reading,**

**-_Ellie_**

**Max POV**

It was only when the younger kids had gone to bed and the four of us had lapsed into stubborn silence that I finally remembered something.

_Voice?_ I called out quietly.

_Hello Maximum. We are reunited._ I grimaced.

"Guys?" I said aloud. "Voice's back." Fang looked up at me with a sympathetic expression, while Iggy and Kai (no need to encourage her)remained silent.

"When? Why?" asked Fang.

"No idea." I said with a sigh.

_Care to reveal why you returned?_ I asked.

_To__ request you to rid members of your Flock from certain…distractions as well as destroying the last branches of __Itex_

_The last branches?_

_Yes. Most of them had no money or motive to continue after the fall of __Itex__ in Germany. A select few still remain, but like the rest with one small intrusion they will crumble._

_So we blow up three more __Itex's__ and…that's it? We're done?_

There was a nail biting pause. _Yes._ It said finally.

I opened my mouth to let out a whoop of happiness, but the Voice cut me off.

_Don't forget about the distractions that must be removed._ It reminded darkly.

I sighed. _Voice, we've been through this. We tried the whole Fang-and-Max-leave-each other-to-grow-stronger. It failed. Crashed and burned miserably._

_It is not you who __is__ distracted._

I let my eyes flick around the room. They fell upon stony Kae and depressed Iggy. Oh no. They had both become members of the flock. No way was one of them leaving.

_Yes, Maximum. It is __necessary__. Experiment 29 is—_

_Kae_ I shot back at my Voice.

_Fine, Fine. __Kae__ is realizing herself she must leave. _I opened my mouth to tell the others.

_Tell no one, or she will be forced to stay. The three branches will grow until they are a__s strong as their __predecessors.You__ must attack now. Perhaps she will return. But we can't let the branches fester, or else--_

_Ok, Ok, I get it._

Secretly, I doubted Kae would leave.

**Objective POV**

The next morning, the Flock members found letters on their packs. Some were longer than others, but nobody read them. They were each signed:

Experiment 29, who became Kae, who returned to 29.

On the front of each letter it said _Thank you for all you have done._

They didn't need to see anything else.

**IGGY POV**

When someone finally explained the situation to me, my body went rigid.

I knew I had screwed up royally.

But she couldn't leave. No way. We needed to talk.

But if what she had felt when she found the blond and I felt anything like what I was feeling, a part of brain was whispering _Maybe__ you deserve it._

_-----------------------------------Time Lapse---------------------------------------_

**OBJECTIVE**

They found her in a clearing, packing her bag and readying herself for a flight.

Angel screamed "No!" Kae froze.

She turned slowly, only to have Nudge, Angel, and Gazzy flinging themselves at her.

"I'm sorry." She whispered, real emotion flickering in her otherwise lifeless gray eyes.

Nudge sniffed. "Will you come back?"

She was silent.

"Please, don't leave." Angel.

"Someday, maybe." Kae said slowly.

The three kids nodded and backed away. Kae briefly embraced Max and Fang, telling them to read their letters.

Then came Iggy.

**Iggy POV**

Then came me. We both had been avoiding each other this whole time, but she had no choice. I blindly groped the air in front of me, until I found her face. I rested my hand on her cheek.

"Please don't go. I know you don't want to hear any excuses now, but please…I swear that she was absolutely nothing, she was kissing me, she tricked me…." My voice cracked. "I love you. " I whispered. I felt her stiffen. "No, please. I do. And I don't know how, or why, but I do. Don't leave me."

**OBJECTIVE**

Kae shook her head slowly.

"Iggy, let me say all I have to say first. Promise you won't interrupt?" He nodded.

She took a deep breath, preparing to say more than she ever had in her entire life.

"You may be surprised, but I'm not mad at you for kissing her." Iggy opened his moth, but closed it quickly after seeing her face. "Really, I'm not. You did what any normal teenage boy would do. You let the 98 percent human part of you take over, and that's your nature. I can hardly be angry with you for dong something like that.

"But, Iggy, I'm not like that. I do love you Iggy, I do. And maybe you like me too. But Ig, please try to see the difference: in my emotionless heart, you made me feel something so strong that it broke down all of my training. I have no other explanation for it other than love, for that's the most powerful feeling of all. But when the time comes that this infatuation you have mistaken for love fades, I won't be able to face it. I have to leave before that happens."Iggy opened his mouth, but 29 gently closed it.

"It comes down to this: I'm simply not human enough for you." With that, she sprung into the air and pumped her ink-black wings until she disappeared. The Flock was frozen where she had left them, partially shocked by how much she had said, and mostly shocked about _what_ she had said.

When the flock recovered, they each returned to the cave and silently read their letter.

**Next chapter will have the letters...get ready, maybe a few tissues too :[**

**Review!!**


	13. Letters of Sorrow

**A/****N This**** is the longest chapter yet. Hope you enjoy **

**This chapter will be all of the letters 29 wrote to the flock.**** For the first time, I think I might end on a ****cliffie**

**And by ****cliffie**** I mean I won't put the letter to Iggy in this chapter. I feel evil….**

**I'm going on vacation soon, so I won't be able to update aftet tonight. I may put up another chapter if I get a lot of reviews.**

**Merry Christmas if you celebrate Christmas, and Happy Holidays!**

**Keep up with the reviews, and happy reading**

**-Ellie**

**OBJECTIVE**

Not a word was spoken while the Flock retraced their steps back to the cave. Each member sat down on their respective packs, and opened up their letter.

**ANGEL**

With trembling hands, I opened my note.

I know it seems like I never really got that attached to 29, but I really did. She may have been silent and have had a kind of creepy black mind, but she had good intentions. And I think she really hit it off with Iggy.

But she'll come back.

She has to, right?I knew that I would only go downhill from here if I kept second guessing myself, so instead I began reading:

_Dear Angel,_

_I would like to firstly apologize for leaving all of you. I understand that you might be extremely angry, or (dare I hope it) possibly upset._

_You have every right to be._

_But please know that it was not anyone's fault I left. I figured a few things out, and that led me to the inevitable conclusion that I needed to leave, for both __my and the Flocks' safety_

_But do not dwell to__o__ much on the fact I left. Please, for my sake, realize all you have done._

_First off, when I first met you a single word was unheard of for me. I much preferred the solitary silence of my mind, and each of you helped me out of that._

_So, I beg you not to do two things: mourn my loss, or blame yourself. Please, continue with you lives as best as you can._

_You are all strong. I believe in you._

_Thank you once again,_

_Experiment 29, who became __Kae__, and who returned to 29 again._

**NUDGE**

I'm really scared. I don't want to have to read her note.

I really did grow fond of her, silent though she was.

I mean, I could talk enough for both of us.

Besides, it's Iggy I'm worried about. He's drawn so far into himself that I don't know if anyone except 29 herself could bring him back…

_Dear Nudge,_

_I am sorry. I don't know how else to phrase it. I feel has if I have grown very fond of you, even if the feeling was not mutual. _

_Still, I never thought leaving all of you would be as hard as it turned out to be._

_I hardly think a letter could make up for what I've done__, but I don't know how else to do it_

_So, I humbly request that you carry on your lives to the best of your abilities._

_Stay strong, Nudge._

_Experiment 29, who became __Kae__, and who returned to 29 again._

**GAZZY**

Of course I miss her. Look, I try to keep the "tough kid" façade up as much as possible, but there's only so far I can pretend.

I really did like her. She was really timid, but her Raven DNA was awesome. She let me examine her wings a few times.

But, Iggy is clearly the one most affected. As his partner in crime, I notice these things. His face is completely void of the usually mischevious smirk. On top of that, his eyes that usually sparkle with some sort of humor had been deflated, and looked almost as dead and 29's did.

I hope her letter bears some good news…

_Dear __Gazzy_

_I don't know if you'll miss me at all. As I'm writing this, I'm starting to realize I never reached out to you that much. Truthfully, reaching out at all is difficult for me._

_But I still don't forgive myself for what I'm doing. I know you wanted to further examine me, and I was looking forward to your findings._

_Gazzy__, as Iggy's partner, please __help__ him. I know what I did may scar him. But it is for the best. Trust me, and help him do the same._

_Stay strong, Gasman._

_Experiment 29, who became __Kae__, and who returned to 29 again._

**FANG**

The silence in the cave was infuriating.

Each person sat down, reading their letters. I couldn't stand the oppressive atmosphere, so I walked out to the ledge.

_Dear Fang,_

_I'm not one for formalities, and neither are you. I think that's why we got along so well._

_We both know that in the two years that I was a part of the Flock you became a brother to me. Not surprisingly, you could reach me the best_

_I still regret not telling the older kid's my whole story. _

_I say older, only because the majority of it should not be heard by younger kids. But I still feel I owe all of you an explanation for not only why I left, but why I was…the way that I was._

_I'm rambling, and I apologize. _

_Please, Fang. You know Iggy better than anyone else in the Flock._

_If you truly care about either of us, you'll help him get over me._

_Take care of the Flock. I know you can do it._

_(Also, I've been meaning to tell both you and Max this for a while—get your feelings for each other out in the open. Don't deny you have them—I might be devoid of most feelings but I'm not oblivious. For both of your sakes', just talk to __eachother_

_Experiment 29, who became __Kae__, and who returned to 29 again._

**MAX**

I stared numbly at the piece of notebook paper in my hands. I dimly registered it had been ripped out of that notebook she had showed me two years ago…

I was still in a state of shock. I leaned up against the cave wall, took a deep breath, and began to read.

_Dear Max,_

_If I said these last two years have left no imprint on me I'd be a liar._

_Before I met the flock I was a cold, unemotional, experiment. The 98 percent human part of me was secured tightly inside of me._

_Then I met you. And when we broke out, something changed. It wasn't just the change of scene (though, the wide open air was quite the contrast to the stifling rooms of the School__)but__ something that had been buried for six years had suddenly come alive._

_And I have you to thank._

_I would also be lying if I said we had become like sisters for the past years._

_For, this is only partially true._

_You have been a sister to me, and a wonderfully patient one at that._

_But as I write this, I realize how little I did in return._

_You gave so much energy to reviving me, which you surprisingly __succeded__ in._

_You stuck by me even when it seemed nothing could save me._

_And I remained ungrateful._

_Please, Max, forgive me for what I have done. Not only did I leave you, but I left without truly thanking you or showing you at all that I truly appreciated all you had done._

_I also would like to apologize for not fully explaining my past. I did not want to scare you, but I regret not giving you an explanation you completely deserved._

_On a different note, I would suggest you talk to Fang a bit more. You know what about. You owe each other that._

_Lastly, I leave you with one request. Read Iggy his letter. I had no time to translate it to Braille._

_With these desperate pleas for __forgiveness__, I wish you the best of luck. Stay strong, though I doubt you need any reminder._

_Experiment 29, who became __Kae__, and who returned to 29 again._


	14. Iggy's Letter and a Shocking Past

**A/N Okay. So I was away for one week. And I got one review.  
So, I decided I don't care about reviews. If no one cares to review, I won't care to update. I'll only update once a week, and that's for my own sake as I do want to complete this story.  
So no more threatening for reviews. I don't mean I don't want them--I do. But I just won't beg each chapter. They will come once a week, regardless of how many (or more likely how _few_) I recieve.**

**Also, about 29 being emotional...think of it this way: She was unemotional, but that's because she had been taught to and had never really had any. Then when real emotions came, she had to supress them as best she could. Think of the letters (the one in this chap especially) as a sort of outpouring of all that bottled emotions.****  
Happy reading, anyways.**

**-Ellie**

**IGGY POV**

The time had come. I could sense the others had finished up their letters, and I couldn't very well be the only one who had not read his.

And that's when it hit me.

I'm blind.

And she wrote a letter.

Was this her idea of a cruel joke? A last, biting reminder of what I had done? Did she expect me to forever wallow, always yearning for whatever that piece of paper held?

Max called over to me from her spot on the wall. I lazily turned my head.

"She asked me to read yours to you…" It was a question. Was I ready to hear whatever was on that page? I don't know if I could bear it.

Who was I kidding? I would never sleep if I didn't know.

"Read it." I said softly. My voice sounded weak and flimsy even to my own ears. But I didn't care.

I heard Max walk over to me, pick up a piece of paper and sit down. She was silent for a second, and then put her arm on my shoulder.

Without meaning to, I began to cry. All of the weight of what had recently transpired finally fell on my shoulders, and I couldn't bear it. I let Max hold me, and cried until I had dried up. **(A/N No, this is NOT a Miggy fic. Max is being maternal, or maybe big-sisterly. Just wanted to clear that up.)**

She reached out and dried my eyes."Do you still—""Yes." I cut her off. "Please." I said a bit softer.

She cleared her throat, and began.

_Dear Iggy,_

_If my directions were followed, then I assume it is the day I left you and Max is reading this aloud. For all I know, though, __it's__ ten years later and your anger took this long to simmer out. And I understand._

_But for lack of knowledge, I will assume you are still 16, and my disappearance is raw._

_It is no surprise I wrote your letter as my last one. The others were not easy, of course, but there is no denying yours would be the hardest._

_Iggy, for you to understand really why I left, I need to give you the quickest background I can of my youth. Share it with the older kids only, though. The youngest Flock members don't need to hear it. __Yet__, anyway._

_When I was 4 years old, my parents both were killed in a freak accident in a power plant._

_They were both employees._

_My Uncle took me in. However, he soon found himself pressed for money._

_He did what anyone who was given a child that they didn't want, and was presented with an opportunity not only to rid themselves of said child but also provide them with enough money to last them a lifetime._

_He __sold me to a group of scientis__ts, who claimed they would never harm me, only study me.__ I was going to contribute to the development of hundreds of vaccines, so why not?_

_As you've probably guessed, it was no do-gooder group of scientists who had taken me. It was the whitecoats._

_The first year 2 years of my training were blurry. They mostly made me run, had me interact with other experiments, tested my IQ, etc._

_On my sixth birthday, everything changed._

_This was when a period I refer to as the 'Dark Years' began. Though it sounds like some sort of science fiction novel, I assure you it was very real._

_In the beginning, I was slowly broken down, mentally and physically.__ From age 6-12, they mentally broke me down._

_Or so they thought._

_You see, as soon as I had enough sense to understand that what they were doing was essentially torture, I decided to remain silent._

_This was enough to occupy them for some time. Soon, however, they regarded it as a "medical mystery", and continued their original plan._

_I will spare you the details, as no one deserves to be subjected to some of the atrocities that I had been punished with._

_But when the "mental breakdown" had been successfully completed in their opinion, they broke me down physically._

_The mental breaking down, though it took longer, was far easier. I was young, and therefore accepted whatever they told me. The physical breakdown, however, was two years._

_It was two years that I have tried to forget, but they continue to haunt me to this day._

_They were filled with tank torture, poison, old-fashioned running without food or water until you pass out, fighting Erasers that had been trained, diseases, with holding food, cutting my arms and legs over and over again, reopeing them daily, and all other manners of torture._

_But I made it through. __Physically, at least.__ The mental breakdown was more serious and irreversible, I'm afraid._

_Or so I believed. You see, when Max came and we broke out together and I met the Flock, much of what I had been taught I learned to be false._

_Among those was the notion that all emotions were always bad things._

_And this is where you come in, Ig._

_My emotion-parched heart suddenly burst into life when I met you, and to be honest it pretty much scared the shit out of me, if you can excuse my language._

_But, slowly, I began to trust you. And, true to your word, you began to pull me out of the hole the whitecoats had dug for me through all those years of mental breakdown._

_Before you guess at what I'm going to say, let me ease your mind—when you kissed her, that didn't shatter our trust._

Here, Max stopped reading.

"What?" She cried. "Who did you kiss? Is that what happened that made you two fall out? Jesus, Iggy, I thought you had more sense than that!" But one look at my expression shut her up.

"I'm sorry Iggy, please forgive me." Obviously, she realized I had beaten myself up considerably. I said nothing. She sighed, and continued to read.

_It shattered what I thought we had._

_Once again, it wasn't your fault. My feelings for you were understandably strong, as you were __pretty much__ my savior._

_But your feelings back were only that you saw a girl, who liked you, and who was not all that different from you. She had wings, didn't think less of you for being blind, and was strong._

_So, Iggy, please, I beg you, don't allow what I've done to you to haunt you._

_I blame myself, and only myself. If you blamed yourself that would only make it worse._

_Iggy, please for my sake.__ Continue with your life. Go blow up __Itex__. Do it for the Flock. Do it for all the deaths you'll be avenging. Do it for all those lives you'll be saving._

_And, dare I say it, do it for me. The School has made me into what I am. Blame the __School ,__ and me too, but not yourself._

_Goodbye Iggy. I love you. I always have, and I always will. But let that not entice you into attempting to find me. If you do, truly, deeply, love me, you'll leave me be._

_Trust me._

Here, Max paused. His letter was signed differently. It read:

_Kae_

When she said the signature out loud, I tensed.

Everything was quiet for a second.

I felt my energy give out. I couldn't even begin to comprehend what the letter had said.

But no need to worry. The letter was forever immortalized in my head. I would mull over things later.

Now, I needed some rest.

**Hope you like it….this chapter was mainly to clear up her past as that as remained quite mysterious.**

**-ellie**


	15. Always, Though Not Now

**A/****N Thanks for the two reviews...and about Total. Well, I _would_ give some awesome explaantion about how he'd weigh down the story etc, but alas, I have no such excuse. I forgot him. xD Sorry about that...if you want, I can go back and add him in later...**

**I**** realized the FAX I mean to put in this story is sadly lacking. Hopefully this chapter will make up for it.**

**Don't get too excited. It's not all that ****FAXy****. Actually, it's kind of almost-but-not-quite-Fax. Sorry about that.More will come. I promise.**

**MAX**

I can't even begin to describe the deep depression that blanketed the Flock for the next two weeks.

Words were rarely exchanged. We slept most of the time. We stayed at the cave at night, but during the day some of us would disappear, brooding.

None of it mattered. 29 was gone.

As silent as she was, none of us had given her much credit for the amount she had touched us all.

We all remained sullen and quiet until finally I stood up and addressed the group.

"There's something I haven't been totally honest with you guys about. The Voice recently declared that all we need to do is demolish the last three branches of Itex. When we blew up the one in Germany, we cut off the monster's head. But parts of them still are going. Only three, though. So if we can blow up those last three, Itex will die. We'll be free, the world will be saved…" My voice grew quiet, almost to a whisper. "It will be over."There was a stunned silence, and then Gazzy, Angel, and Nudge threw their arms around me.

I laughed through my tears. We were going to win this battle. Damn it, but we would win.

Now I just had to tell Fang...

My eyes flickered back to the line in 29's letter regarding him.

_What the hell._ I walked out to the ledge next to him and sat down.

He jumped at my voice.

"Did you hear?" I asked.

"That there is only three left?" He asked, his voice quavering with…was that nervousness?

I nodded.

"Yeah." He said.

I looked over at him. _Now or never, Max._ I thought.

"Fang—"

"Max—"

We spoke at the same time. Embarrassed, we gestured for each other to go first. At the same time. Again.

He took a breath.

"In 29's letter…"

"You too?" I asked incredulously.

He nodded.

"Well, that makes this easier." I said.

He turned to me and said, "Max, I've tried to deny this…thing for a while now. But after seeing 29 leave Iggy, and seeing how lost he is, I can't help but imagining you leaving." Seeing the look of surprise on my face, he quickly continued "Not the Flock, I mean. But me. I couldn't do that. So I started thinking about _why_ I couldn't do that. At first, I convinced myself because we were best friends. We couldn't fall out, it would destroy the Flock. But then, that excuse grew pretty flimsy. Another thought hit me. This one, I couldn't discourage myself from. Max," He said with a sigh, "I think I love you."

**FANG**

There. I said it. The three words that had forever haunted me every time I looked at Max.

I cringed, and prepared myself for the volley of insults and horrible things that were poised on Max's tongue.

Nothing happened.

I looked up, and to my complete shock, I saw her with the biggest grin on her face that I had ever seen.

"You're not planning my exile, are you?" I asked, only half- kidding.

She didn't answer. Her grin faded to a look of longing. She leaned in slowly. Our lips were inching closer and closer.

At the last second, both of us pulled back.

"It's not the time." She said, with tears spilling over her cheeks. "We can't seem like we're using each other for comfort after she left." Seeing the appalled look on my face, she rushed onwards. "Not that we are. But that can't be a good place to start something?"

My face fell. She was turning me down in the nicest way she could.

"Fang." She said quietly. "I love you too."

I felt my spirits lift. She did? Was this not entirely foolish? I did a happy dance. Inside, of course.

"But I can't. Not yet. I swear to God, when this is over, if you still want me I will be all yours."

"If I still want you?" I said incredulously. This girl really didn't get it. "Max, I love you. When you want to be with me, know I will always want the same."

She smiled again. She reached out and squeezed my hand.

"We'll always be here for each other until then, right?" She asked.

I nodded and smiled back. It was a real, genuine, "I'm happy smile", the likes of which I had only smiled about twice in my lifetime.

"Always." I promised.

We both stood up and stood still for a second. Suddenly, she threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly. I returned the hug.

"Thanks." She whispered.

"No." I said softly. "Thank you."

**Aww****… the real Fax will be in the second to last or last chapter.**

**Review if you want a new chapter before next Saturday. If not, don't bother.**


	16. The First Two

**A/N Hi everyone. Thanks for the reviews, I sent out responses. If I missed one, just PM me or leave me a second and I'll be sure to get back to you. Your comments rock!**

**Not quite sure how many more chaps we will have, but I don't think any more than 5. I'll keep you posted.**

**Happy reading!**

**-ellie**

**MAX**

It's been one year since 29 left us. The pain was still there, but we had used her leaving as fuel. Everytime I threw a punch at an Eraser, we did it for her. For all she had done for us.

Fang and I were pretty content. Not over-joyed at the arrangement we had, but content enough.

The first two Itex's were pieces of cake. With the help of Voice/Jeb (he told me his identity. I don't believe him. He said we'd meet him again at the last Itex. He's always been one for the dramatic.)

Right before we broke into the second one, Angel voiced a good question: Where were all the experiments?

Eager to prove his good intentions, Jeb/the Voice answered. He explained that only one Itex actually made the experiments. That's where we were born, raised, and brought to when we had been captured. He refused to tell us whether or not it had been destroyed.

Anyway, the first two were pretty easy. We finished off all of their Erasers (they had about 20 apiece), and then evacuated the building under the pretense of a fire drill.

Well, fire there was.

Iggy and Gazzy built both bombs. They were the mothers of all bombs. There was not a scrap of paper that survived.

Those two Itex's were done.

The third and final branch was a little different.

It wasn't the company Itex.

It was the School.

The very same one we grew up in, where I was held and met 29, home sweet home.

To Iggy's disappointment, there were no bombs in this one.

I was at a loss. I knew that by destroying the buldings, I wasn't destorying the company itself. I needed something concrete to bring them down.

I just had no goddamn idea what the hell it was.

But, like many other times in need (I'll admit it, albeit grudgingly, the Voice has been helpful. Sometimes.) The Voice stepped in to assit.

The Voice revealed a document. It was called Byhalf Chronicles.

Sounds like a book, no? Well, it basically is all the information about the Byhalf plan, us, all other mutants, everything Itex has done. For reasons of their own, they made two copies: one, we destroyed in Germany. The second is in the last branch.

It was the only copy left. It wasn't saved on any computer. Just one small manilla folder, innocent though it may seem.

It was all the School and Itex worked for. Their big ideas, their plans.

We would use it to destroy them.

We were ready.

**FANG**

Even after Max and I decided to wait, we still spent more time together. We took care to not completely let it show for the sake of the younger kids.

We had to be content with stolen glances, and hidden smiles. It was okay for now. But when that document was destroyed, I don't think I would be able wait more. Everytime I saw her, I felt I just needed to hold her. And be held by her.

That kiss we had at the cave years and years ago? Not really a kiss, considering she didn't entirely kiss me back.

But when this was over, she would. I know she would.

For now though, we had the School to destroy.

**MAX**

We were flying to the School, each engaged in their own thoughts.

None of us dared to completely believe that this could possibly be the end.

We mulled over things silently. I was perfectly content imagining punching the lights out of a few whitecoats (the very same who had made me) when the Voice chimed in.

_Maximum.  
__Yes, Voice?__  
__To what do I owe this pleasure, sir?  
__Oh, don't be so sarcastic.  
__Sorry. I'm a little nervous.  
__It's understandable. But, we have to talk about what you actually must do.  
__I'm all ears.  
__The document is closely sealed in a safe, to which I know the code.  
__Wait, if you know the code why can'__t you destroy the document?  
_The Voice sighed. If a Voice contained in my head could sigh. Best not to dwell on it.  
_After being removed, the room__ seals off. The only way out are two windows.  
__Then climb out!  
__And then what? Pray as I speed down 20 stories?  
_Oh. That made sense. So only winged mutants could do this. Well, it just so happens... wait.  
_Why would they make something that could destroy them accessible to those __who want to do just that?  
__They're cocky. _The Voice answered. _They think you could never figure out the code. So, they give you pretty much a free way out.  
__Nice. _I said. _So we break in, you guide us to this room, we open the safe, break the windows, destroy the document, and we're done.  
_There was a pause. _Not quite._ The Voice said.  
I groaned. _Then what?  
__The document must be sent to someone in power.  
__What do you mean?  
__It's evidence. Send it to someone important, show them your wings, and you're done.  
__Who do you have in mind?  
_I could almost hear the snide smile.  
_The President of the United States._

**A/N Mkay. I've heard rumors (and read on the blog) about a meeting with the President in the next book. I have not read that. I won't until I finish this story.**

**But if I must, I do not claim ownership of the meeting-the-president-idea. It's not that original, anyway.**

**Review, or see you in a week!**


	17. Her Return and an Unknown Sorrow

**A/N Hello readers xD Thanks a ton for all the reviews. I sent out the responses. If I for some reason missed yours, PM me or leave another and I'll send my apologies with the response.**

**And now, what you've allllll been waiting for. 29/Kae/Experiment 29 is back. Not quite with a vengence, but back all the same.**

**Enjoy, happy reading!**

**-ellie**

**(This chap is meanwhile to the last one, at the last School.)**

**29 (she's ****baaaa****ck**

"Did you tell them?" I asked. My voice still sounded hollow. I guess after not really using it for about 16 years, to suddenly speak in full sentences often is kind of strenuous.

Since my return, the School was slightly more hospitable. By hospitable, I mean they didn't gleefully try to kill me every waking hour.

Hey, progress is progress.

The tests to get me to speak were over. The Whitecoats (thanks to Jeb) had been convinced that I had been experimented on so much that data from me was now useless.

Pretty much they observed me. I got to speak with Jeb a lot, and I answered his questions about the Flock.

I kept the "thing" between Iggy and I a secret. I still wasn't even close to healed about that, so why advertise it?

Still, Jeb was continuing where Iggy had left off in reversing most of my treatment. He still gave me the whole speech about how the School is not a terrible institution, blah blah blah, but I mostly tune him out when he begins that monologue.

I was sitting across from Jeb in a conference room. He told me the Flock was coming here. To finish the deed. I felt weirdly proud of them, especially the younger ones, when Jeb lovingly recounted the first two branches they demolished. Angel was becoming more powerful by the minute, and Nudge was becoming quite the fighter. Almost as good as Max, Jeb said.

As for Gazzy, well he had learned a lot. His bombs were now far more sophisticated, normally setting of multiple explosions per bomb.

Max and Fang were closer than ever, (I take some credit for that), with Max methodically destroying the final branches of the dark company that had haunted her and everything she loved.

And here I am. One year later. 17 years old and still just opening up to people. At least I have more emotions than a rock. Well, almost.

"About you?" Jeb asked. I nodded. "No, not yet." **(A/N ****If**** this is confusing, go back to the very beginning of this chapter. That's what she's asking.)**

"Good." I said with a sigh. "That means I can escape when they are breaking in." I said, speaking to myself more than him.

"Absolutely not." He said it so casually I barely registered he was saying I couldn't do something.

"What?" I hissed. Look, he may have helped me come out of my iron cage of emotionlessness (**A/N I'M IN A GLASS CASE OF EMOTIONNNN!! Okay I'm done now xD...anyone seen Anchorman? good move. okay sorry for the interruption. back to the story.)** but I still choose what I do, and when I do it. I owe Jeb nothing, considering he was the one who had dug me this hell-hole of emotionlessness.

"You will be here when they finish, and you will go to the President of the United States with them."

"Jeb, you don't understand—"

"I think I do. It's about Iggy, is it not?"

I sat in stunned silence. I had told nobody about that. How did he know?

"Max told me when I asked about you. She didn't know you were here, so she filled me in."

I remained stubbornly silent.

"Kae," Not this again.

"29!" I said venomously. I was not a person. He had seen to that.

"Kae." He said just as firmly. I waved it off. I'm sick of this argument.

"Kae," he continued, "You have no idea what he thinks of you."

"God damn it, yes I do! I can't see him again, Jeb! I won't be able to leave him. I love him too much. That's why I can't see him." Even to my ears it sounded weak, and unconvincing.

"That's not a bad thing, Kae!" He said gently.

I snorted. "Could've told me that before you spent 6 years teaching me that feeling anything at all was a weakness." He stiffened. I knew that would get him.

"As you very well know, I was unaware of you're training. I did not approve of it. I completely disagree with that to this day, hence why I am helping you reverse the effects." I said nothing. I saw no need to enlighten him that I didn't blame him. He continued, softer this time.

"Kae, you don't know what he is thinking. Perhaps he really does love you as much as you love him." He suggested.

"Never." I said. "I'm not a moron."

Jeb shook his head again.

"Max has told me what he's been doing. He's killing himself, Kae. He's withering away. Each day, it becomes harder to bear. He doesn't build bombs for fun anymore—only out of malice, and self-loathing. Max is afraid he will hurt himself, if he hasn't already. He's at the edge, Kae. You can bring him back. Only you can."

"But I can't." I said softly.

"Give him a chance." Jeb suggested. "Worse comes to worse—"

"Worse comes to worse he gets over this stupid infatuation and leaves me. He goes off and has a life. I live miserably for the rest of my life in a hellish depression, and lock myself in a high-walled pit of darkness. At least there, the lack of light would be some solace." I almost laughed. For the mute person I had been, I liked to think I had a way with words. "Actually, no. I would just kill myself. I couldn't physically deal with that, no matter how many enhancements you did to me."

"It's called heartbreak, Kae. I myself have felt it many times—"

I felt my anger bubble over.

"Over high-school sweethearts! That's disappointment, not heart break. You mend, you heal. Mine is different. My heart wouldn't be able to take a break. It's hard enough to accept love. To lose it would kill me!" I screamed.

He was unfazed by my yelling.

"Just give him a chance. That's all I'm asking."

"A chance will only end in his moving on and my slow demise." I said bitterly.

"Kae, love is never perfect. Never. Disney and all other industries distort love until it barely resembles the real thing again. Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, any love-movie you've ever seen… they paint love as this beautiful thing. Which it is, but for entirely different reasons. When someone loves you and you love them back, you think you feel so complete. But only when you disagree, or fight, or in some cases break up, and you are apart do you feel how much they complete you. When you are with one another again, it makes it that much more perfect. Trust me, Kae. I may be an old man, but I know something about love. I know what its like to love and be loved, and I know what it's like to let it go." For a second, tears filled his eyes. When I took a closer look, they disappeared.

"Just a chance. If not for yourself, for Iggy's sake. For my sake." He pleaded.

I thought about his words. Without knowing why or even that I did so, I nodded.

**A/N Review, or see you next Saturday.**

**If I get more than 4 reviews by the end of Sunday (haha--that'll make it 29 reviews for the story 29. Ha.), then I'll the next one.**

**Enjoy your week xD**


	18. Break In

**A/N****So**** you definitely don't want to hear my excuses. And frankly, other than a huge history research paper and a few mid-terms, I don't have one. So I'm really sorry, it's been three weeks, and I know I destroyed the pattern. But I'm starting it up again.**

**Thanks to anyone who's sticking with this story, I know it's not easy ****xD**

**Hopefully this long chap makes up for ****it,**** and its no filler either.**

_**Ellie**_

**MAX**

Here we stood. Midnight, though the evil emanating from the building was visible even in the dawn gloom.

Each of us mentally prepared ourselves for the next twenty minutes or so. We could take the Erasers. We could take the Whitecoats. We could get to the document, snag it, and get the hell out of there.

We could.

But we were scared.

Scared to lose one another.

Scared to be alone if something went wrong.

Scared for it all to go wrong.

Scared for it all to go _right._

**FANG**

I didn't even try to hide my disgust of the evil grounds stretching in front of us.

The large building was imposing, of course. But it looked like a hospital, which functioned as its disguise.

Not that anyone would make their way into the middle of god-damn-freakin'-nowhere, and then wonder "Hey, what's this ominous hospital that almost looks like a medieval castle torture chamber?" Unless you worked here, in which case the disguise was pointless.

Or unless you were here to avenge a lifetime of hell, of fear. Of running, never looking back. Of having people you loved stolen, killed.

And that's where we came in.

**MAX**

The break-in was so easy it scared me. Clearly, since the Germany incident they were short of hands. This gave us no more than one person at a time for Angel to "convince" them our being here was nothing out of the ordinary and they should not remember our even existing.

_Almost there, Maximum._ The Voice said. _Up one more flight of stairs, 3__rd__ door on your left._

I mentally repeated the directions to Angel, who transferred them to the others. They all nodded, and before long we were right outside a non-descript looking door.

So I was surprised.

Okay, fine. I expected something a little out of the ordinary. Not like, "YOU HAVE FOUND OUR WEAKNESS. PLEASE TAKE WHAT YOU NEED, AND COME AGAIN SOON!" plastered on the door or anything, but _something._

There's a change. Maximum Ride _asking_ for excitement. As if my life was dull.

_Actually, __Maximum__, you may find your life following the extermination of __Itex__ extremely tedious. Living normally, going to school…_

_Somehow, I think we'll manage._ I replied with a grin. I gestured to the others. We tapped fists.

"I don't know what's behind this door. Maybe a pack of Erasers, or Whitecoats. Maybe a new Director. Who knows? But I'm going in. After all this sh--, I mean, crap they've put us through, I'm done with it. You guys mean too much to me to have me watch any of you hurt again. But if you guys want to stay out here, I'll understand. I'm the one who should get hurt, if anyone." I said confidently. No need to drag them in even further, right?

"Hell no!" cried Iggy.

"Max, are you—" Angel exclaimed.

"But, Max, we are in this together, right? No matter what? Always with each other?" Nudge said, softly for what seemed like the first time in her life.

"We go where you go, Max." Gazzy said bravely. I ruffled his hair. I looked up. Everyone was look at something over my shoulder with a strange expression on their face. I caught Gazzy muttering something to Iggy, who grinned.

I turned around only to have my face collide with---

---Fang's lips. I bounced back, but he caught me, and kissed me firmly, but not too hard. I didn't know what was happening, or what I was doing. Dimly aware of my surroundings, I kissed him back. I practically cried when he pulled away.

There was a silence.

"Guess that's Fang's answer." Iggy said, a smug grin planted on his face. I leaned over to whack him.

"Guess we're ready, huh?" I said. Everyone nodded. But nobody moved.

We all wanted to believe the end was just behind that closed door. That our lives could be—dare we say it--normal? The chasing would be over, the constant fear of death that shouldered us day and night? It could be over, all over. The kids could go to school. Iggy might go to some college for the blind. And Fang and I could---well, we _were_ 17, after all!

Finally, I took a deep breath. With one last, fleeting glance at my Flock, I shoved the door open.

**(A/N I considered stopping it there. But then I realized you'd probably kill me. So I didn't. Be grateful.)**

For a moment, I thought we had entered the wrong room. It was a nondescript, plain office. It had one wood desk with a computer and folders spread across it, and a rolly chair.

I snuck a glance at the others. Their expressions ranged from relief, astonishment, disbelief, and even disappointment. Just as I was about to abort the whole thing, cursing Jeb colorfully, he spoke up.

_Here we are. Second cabinet, there's a safe._

"Jeb says there's a safe in that cabinet." I said, though I made no move to open it. It was silent.

"Hell," I said finally, "He got us this far, didn't he?" Nobody agreed, but nobody protested either. I reached for the cabinet.

"Wait, Max, don't!" Iggy called. I froze. An eerie silence descended on the room. Iggy's face was screwed up in concentration. He was listening.

"A laser." He said at last. "A motion detector. It triggers—a lockdown." He said slowly, making wild figures in the air with his hands. We were all stunned. After a moment, he seemed to be too.

"Woah." He said slowly. "Nice time to find an ability." Fang let out a low whistle.

"No time to dwell." I reminded them firmly. Within a second they had returned to their focused, albeit scared, selves.

I opened the cabinet without much horror descending on me. Before me was a solid, 6-number coded aluminum safe.

_Some help, Jeb?_ I asked.

_12-32-45-89-10-06._ The Voice said smoothly.

_Say it again, slowly please._ As he did so, I keyed in the numbers. There was only "06" left.

That's us. The six, winged mutants. Growing up in a lab, thrown into a world we hardly understood. Chased by beings designed to destroy us. Losing a few battles. Winning a few. A few of us almost dying, some being stolen.

But we had made it. This was it. Finally, it was here. The chance to not only avenge our lost childhoods and innocence, but to prevent others from having the same fate.

I keyed in the last numbers. I held my breath.

Nothing happened for what seemed like an eternity, though it was probably only a second or two.

Then Iggy yelled, "Move!" He blindly reached out for me, grabbing my shirt and pulling me about 5 feet back. Seconds later, a large net fell where I had stood.

I shook my head. "Thanks, Ig." He nodded in response.

_Well__, thanks bunches__ Jeb! So glad you warned me about the imminent doom hanging overhead._

There was a pause. _I'll admit it. I didn't expect the net. So simple, yet for it's simplicity I overlooked it—_

_Jeb, not the time for wishful thinking._

_Right._ He said apologetically. As soon as he said this, we heard locks and seals of all kinds click. There was no need to say it. We were locked in.

_Time __to hurry__, Maximum._

_You can say that again._

**A/N Like it?**** Love it? Hate it? Make sacrificial slaughtering in hopes I'll stop writing?**

**Well, tell me in a review**

**Next chap up later tonight—see ****ya**** then!**

**-****elle**


	19. A Final Escape

**A/N Almost done with this story...only about 3-4 chapters left. This should be done by next Sunday (vacation week!) Enjoy the chap, another up tomorrow.**

_Ellie_

**MAX POV**

Once again, we fell into a silence. The safe had clicked, but none of us dared to make a move to open it.

Then Iggy spoke

"Erasers. Whitecoats. Flyboys. Everything they've got left." We all looked at him strangely. He sighed. "I can hear them. The all are trying to catch us by surprise. They'll be here in…" He paused, doing some calculations in his head. "About 2 minutes and 29.765 seconds." Seeing the look on our faces, he smiled. Well, as much as a smile he had let slip since _she_ left. "Approximately." We all shook our heads.

"They _really_ underestimate us. No idea who they're dealing with, right?" My words were greeted by a few violent nods, and a few more "Hell yeah!"'s, the latter of which I quickly silenced, though I inwardly agreed.

Without one more second of hesitation, I reached into the safe. I braced myself for something. I don't know, an alarm, a trap, maybe even an animal launching itself into my face. Nothing.

I retrieved an innocent looking folder marked "By Half Chronicals." Okay, once again, I felt a pang of disappointment. No red stamp of "Confidential", or "Top Secret". Not even "Classified". I won't lie, I felt a bit upset that my life story wasn't at least, _slightly_ more important that a manila folder. Sighing, I decided to accept this minorly depressing turn of events.

I looked at my Flock. There was a moment in which no words were exchanged, but somehow, we communicated more thoroughly than we had ever done so in our lives. Even sightless Iggy was able to eerily hold eye contact and communicate his feelings with the group. We all were afraid to break out. Who knew what waited for us out there? Would anyone believe us? Would we be relocated to a mental hospital? Would we find out the government _knew_ about Itex, yet let it happen? What would happen then?

But in that moment of eye contact, we all decided it didn't matter what happened after this. All that mattered is we would be together, a Flock, even if everything else changed. In that one second of silent understanding, we all agreed to stay with each other, whatever Fate may throw at us.

With one last nod to every Flock member, my face split into a grin.

"Last U and A?" I said, only a hint of sadness in my voice. Once again, I was greeted with steely nods, and grave expressions.

As if we were one, we all charged the bay windows at the exact same instant. There was one eerie second of silence, until the ear-splitting sound of thousands of pieces of shattering glass assaulted our ears.

Once again, as if we shared some thread of consciousness, we acted in the same moment. Each of snapped out our wings, just as the office we had abandoned was charged with an army of Flyboys, Erasers, and Whitecoats. They must have quite the view. Not everyone gets to see six winged kids snapping out their wings in the same instant, and speeding out towards the horizon. Not even that many Whitecoats see us together like that.

On pure impulse, I craned my head around, to see them all with various expressions of disbelief and wonder. I did an air-bow, before catching up with my Flock and getting caught up in the feeling of pure happiness that was pulsing in the air around my family.

Each member had a grin on their face—even Fang. Our eyes locked for a second, and somehow, in that one second, I knew everything would work out. I didn't know how, when, or why. But somehow I knew, and that was enough for me.

I don't know how long we flew, but I knew it was a while. No words we needed. Not one of us thought about the closure we all knew was necessary, the meeting with the President that was imminent. We only thought of the present. We only thought about each other, and how perfect everything seemed.

And, of course, Jeb had to butt in and completely ruin it. But I suppose that what Father's are for.

_Maximum, yo__u must meet me by the pond that'__s few miles to the East of where you fly now._

I focused my eyes in the direction he had pointed me in, and noticed a medium sized lake exactly where he had said one would be. Suppressing a sigh, I mentally replied.

_Okay. Should I bring the Flock?_

_Yes._

Without saying goodbye, (he never did) the connection was broken. I sighed, and spoke out loud.

"Okay guys. We have to meet Jeb by that lake."

"Why? Can't we enjoy this for an hour or two more?" Asked Nudge.

"Sorry, sweetie." I said, truly apologetic. "But Jeb did tell us where the safe was, and the code. We have to humor him." Gazzy, Angel, and Nudge all reluctantly agreed. Iggy was stony. Fang looked…well, like Fang. I flew up so I could talk to him.

"What do you think?" I asked him, quietly.

"I don't know." He said, after a brief silence. "You're right, he did help us. And I do want to thank him. But I can't help thinking there's a trap, or a catch at least. Something." He shook his head. I flew closer, and gently placed my hand on his shoulder.

"I know." I said quietly, as he turned his eyes to me. "But whatever happens, we can handle it. I mean, we just took down the international company that was trying to destroy the world. I'm sure we can handle a middle-aged man." I said, a smile creeping up on my face. "Even if he is a bastard." I added the last part in a whisper, so the younger ones wouldn't hear.

Fang laughed. Like, a real, genuine laugh. One that you might hear Iggy release after he learned something funny. Or one Nudge would let out when she had talked the ears off of someone for fun. Or when Angel had retrieved something particularly interesting in someone's mind.

And I had made him laugh.

Call me pathetic, but I couldn't help but feel content.

**More Fax later--til then, leave a review xD**


	20. The Meeting

**A/N****Only**** 2 more chapters after this, I think. Keep the reviews coming, and by Sunday this story could be complete. sigh Ah, we'll save the drama for the last chapter.**

**Anyway, enjoy this chap. It's got a ****clifie**** at the end (sorry about that) but the next chapter is easily my favorite in the whole story. More reviews, sooner you'll get it!**

_**Ellie**_

**MAX POV**

As soon as the Flock touched down on the Western shore of the lake, my stomach clenched. Jeb was there alright. But he was not alone. Someone of his height stood next to him. As we got closer, her form became more evident. It was clearly a girl, though a tall and strong one. Her back was to us.

When we only 10 feet away, I suddenly stopped dead. There was no mistaking her now. Kae herself stood next to Jeb, and I didn't know if I was angry or happy about it.

She was different, though. Recognizable of course, but she seemed older, more mature. Her face still had her characteristic stony quality, but it was a little more human that it had been when we had last met. Her hair was as black as ever, and fell to her mid back. She was undeniably beautiful, but it was so unconventional one almost did not notice it. Key word there being almost.

As we stepped closer, Jeb opened his mouth.

**29 POV**

I couldn't entirely believe I really was here. I stood at the edge of a lake, awaiting the arrival of the Flock.

Why had I agreed to this? Jeb had practically _begged_ me to give Iggy a chance, because he made some "tragic" mistake as a young man, and wanted me to live for him. And for some reason I _still_ don't understand, I agreed.

Interrupting my thoughts, I heard wing beats about 50 feet behind me. I swiftly turned my back. Call me superficial, but I was going to delay this meeting as long as possible. I closed my eyes tightly, and dispelled the tears that had stubbornly formed there. To distract myself, I counted the wing beats, concluding that all six of the Flock had come. _All_ six. Perfect.

"Maximum." Jeb greeted warmly. I felt the air shift as he opened his arms.

"Jeb, you may have helped us, but that does still not undo what you have done in the past. Do not expect us to be welcoming to you. We won't be. Be happy we haven't wrung your neck already." Max's cold voice was no doubt accompanied by a withering stare.

If I had not been attempting to draw as little attention to myself, I would have punched the air and screamed "Go Max!" Okay, maybe not really. But I would have…smiled. Yes, I would have grinned.

Fine, I would have inwardly smiled and attempted to look a little less hostile. Happy?

Having dealt with Jeb, I felt their attention turn to me. I was reasonably sure Max and possibly Fang recognized me. I sorely hoped nobody had divulged Iggy about my presence.

Suddenly, I heard a sharp intake of breath. Angel. I felt her begin to run, while whispering "Kae." She wrapped her thin, though strong, arms around my waist. Then, surprising everyone present, including myself, I wrapped my own arms around her, and whispered, "Hey, Angel."

"We missed you so much." She whispered into my shoulder, between tears.

"Me too, kiddo. Me too." I said into her hair. Both Nudge and Gazzy joined the hug, and began their own sets of tears.

"Why'd you leave?" Their questions stung, but that one most of all.

"A lot of reasons." I said quietly. "But none of them about you, okay? I promise."

"Will you stay with us now?" Asked Gazzy, painfully hopeful.

"That depends, Gazzy."

"On what?" he asked. I sighed.

"A few things." I said quietly. I finally released the younger kids. I turned to Max. We stood for one second, both us indecisive. I had no idea how my leaving had affected her. Perhaps she was still angered with me, and this I could understand.

But, before we knew what was happened, we were hugging each other and silently shedding tears for each other. We finally broke apart, and she held me at arm's length.

"You OK?" She inquired. She was clearly referring to my mental state, rather than my physical state. I nodded. She considered me for another second, before we stepped away from each other.

My eyes found Fangs' next. Without even a second of hesitation, he enveloped me in a brotherly hug.

"You have no idea what you did to us."

"I know, and I'm sorry. But you also know that I had to." I said quietly. I felt him nod.

"But how about now? Are you ready?" He asked, so only I could hear.

"It is not I who needs to be ready." I said, just as softly. He released me again, and nodded.

And, with a faint sense of déjà vu, I realized it was only myself and Iggy left.

**Because I'm slightly evil, I decided to end it there. **

**Ha.**

**Review, and enjoy the best chapter yet in the next one. **


	21. Is it Love?

**A/N ****My ****fav**** chapter.**** It was fun to write, and I hope equally fun to read.**

**ellie**

**IGGY POV**

It was quite infuriating, really. As soon as Max told Jeb off, everything went really quiet. When I began to concentrate, I could hear a second person breathing next to Jeb.

And then Angel whispered the one word that had become taboo to say around me.

_Kae_

My mind flew into hyper drive. I found myself remembering how she had breathed, and began comparing it with the person I heard next to Jeb. Before I could reach a conclusion, I hear her voice.

And my brain stopped working on all levels except one.

It was her. Truly her. She was here, and was speaking.

It was her voice, no question. She sounded older, sure, but there was no fooling me. I knew it was her, and a sense of dread filled me.

If she was here, she had either come to speak to only the Flock, or to leave me again.

I began wishing I could turn my emotions off like she could.

**29 POV**

Seeing his face in utter turmoil, I could only imagine the confusion and hurt he was feeling.

I didn't know what to say, or how to say it. But I felt that I needed to start, because he had no way of knowing my expression. Not that my face gave away anything of what I was feeling, anyway.

"Iggy." I whispered. Neither of us moved. I saw him stiffen at my voice, and his previously confused face took on a look of utter disbelief.

I walked closer, and gently placed my hand on his shoulder, to show him where I was. He tentatively reached out to brush my face with his hand. He gently traced my features, committing the changes to memory.

"Is it really you?" He asked incredulously. Holding his hand to my cheek, I nodded. He opened his mouth to speak, but shut it after a few moments.

"Iggy, I'm sorry. I don't know what I did to you when I left. I was scared, Ig. Sacred shitless, if you'll excuse the language. I didn't know what to make of you, or of what I felt when I was around you. And then I realized, or thought I realized, we were too different , far too different. I was too distant. And so, I left. I was selfish Ig. I know it. And I'm sorry. But, I've grown up in this last year. Jeb has worked with me to make me less distant. I'm not going to lie and tell you I'm not scared anymore. If anything, I'm even more scared. But I'm ready to try. I'm ready to take a chance. Of course, if you can stand to have me around after what I put you through." I said the last part bitterly, reminding myself of exactly what he had been through because of my selfish actions.

I fell silent. My throat burned. Even though I spoke more often these days, such a speech would leave anyone dry. I looked back up at Iggy, to see his face twisted in complete shock.

He reached out, take my chin in both his hands, and began to speak.

"Kae, during those two years you were part of the Flock, I thought with all my heart I loved you. I truly did." As soon as he said those words, my heart froze. I began chiding myself.

_What did you think? He would welcome you back with open arms? You were foolish, Experiment. __Foolish like a child.__ Jeb had led you to such assumptions that were so fantastic it was difficult to believe you fell for them. __And now this.__ You deserve these next years of pain, you know. You did this to yourself. Remember that._

I began slipping away into that comforting black of my mind. However, one small, hopeful part of my mind was listening to Iggy speaking again.

"But time went on. You left. And I felt a chasm deeper than I thought was possible. Everything I looked at reminded me of you. I didn't cook. I didn't eat. I didn't talk, except when absolutely necessary. I would tear up anytime someone mentioned you, to the point where everyone stopped saying your name for fear of my sanity. Every time I blew something up, it was purely out of spite, and hatred. I had begun to plan my suicide. As soon as the three branches we taken down, I would pretend to accidently fall victim to one of my own bombs."

His eyes betrayed this sorrow, and his words left the Flock shocked. Iggy? Suicide? Before any of them could say anything, he continued.

"But then, the helpless romantic in me reminded me that you weren't dead. That if I killed myself I would surely never see you again. So I refrained. And then you were here with Jeb. And my iced-over heart began to thaw at every syllable you uttered. And just now, when I felt the changes in your face, I realized I had never loved you. Because only now do I feel love. Because I know the contrast of the emptiness you left, and how unbelievably quickly you filled it back up."

He continued speaking, but softer this time.

"I love you. I don't know how, or why. I don't get it any more than you do. But I would go to hell seven times over to save you. I would willingly accept all of your pain as my own, if only to make you happier. I would do all this and more. If this is not love, than I don't know what is." His voice tapered off.

I had halted my self-induced emotional coma.

Could it be true? My rational self screamed at me to not believe him, that I would only get hurt.

But my other side…that told me something entirely different.

And for the first time in my life, I listened to the non-rational side of myself.

I leaned in slowly, unsure as to his reaction. He didn't move. I guided his hands to my cheeks, and stayed motionless for a second. He seemed confused, before suddenly splitting into a grin. My stone cold heart melted at the sight. In half a second, the distance between us closed.

I smiled against his lips, and sank fully into his arms, feeling safe for the first time in my life.

**And there it is. I tried to think of a celebrity type couple name for Iggy and Kae, but couldn't come up with anything. Iggy and 29 is nearly impossibe. If you think of something, tell me in a review. Just for fun.**

**Next chapter is last. I think. Maybe second to last (if theres an epilouge)? ****Whatever. I'll figure it out.**

**Review please **


	22. Family

**A/N So yes. It is the end. This is the final chapter of 29. (tear)**

**Thanks to all the readers/reviewers, but mostly smilecuznapoleondirtlovesyou . Always left the bestest reviews, so thanks for that.**

**Enough credits. I'm thinking of a total editing session, but that won't be happening until summer.**

**So here it is. Last chapter of 29, my first fic. Never thought it would be 21 chapters. Sorry it took so long to finish, and to get this last chapter out, but I was away and reading the fourth Maximum Ride. Please review, it means the world.**

**Also, to read my full rant on the fourth MR, it's at the end. Let me tell you, it is _not_ a positive rant.**

**Enjoy,**

_**Ellie**_

**MAX**

As soon as Iggy said he loved her, I felt an overwhelming sense of joy. He had been fading away, daily becoming more of a ghost of his former self.

And now, she was back.

And so was he.

For the sake of the younger kids, I silently steered them away from the scene. Kae and Ig were old enough, 17 now. But Nudge (13), Gazzy (11) and Angel (9) did not need to see that. **(A/N Sorry if I screwed up the ages. I tried)**

Much to my surprise, the kids didn't protest. We walked about 50 feet away, and stood around for a few moments. Nobody said anything, and then I noticed they were all looking over my shoulder, with wry expressions on their faces.

"What?" I asked, annoyed. I had lived a life full of surprises; each one more deadly than the last. I had learned to hate them.

In response, Angel only giggled and Gazzy had a smug expression he only could have learned from Iggy. I spun around, and for the second time that day found myself centimeters away from Mr. Dark-and-Unemotional himself.

My breath caught.

"Is it time yet?" Fang whispered into my hair. I dimly realized that Nudge had led Gazzy and Angel away from us. I said a quick thought of thanks to Angel to pass on to Nudge.

"Yes." I whispered. "It is."

About 10 minutes later (or perhaps several sun downs, my sense of time when I was with Fang was severely distorted), the seven of us reunited by the lake. The sun was setting, and we silently watched the orange orb disappear behind the hills. The younger kids had taken off their shoes and were dangling their feet in the water. Jeb stood looking like a proud father a few feet away. (Which I guess he was)

Kae and Ig were seated about 15 feet from the others, her head on his shoulder. Ig's eyes were closed and Kae's were half-open, and she was murmuring softly, no doubt explaining the scene to Iggy.

Fang quietly guided me to the lakes edge, and we sat down together. We assumed a position similar to Kae and Ig.

I shivered. With the sun setting, the air had gotten distinctly colder.

A normal boyfriend would offer a fleece or jacket. A normal girl would shyly accept it. And, normally, they would go home both bursting with excitement.

My life is not normal.

In my world, Fang snapped open his gleaming midnight-black wings and wrapped them around me. I was surprised at the warmth inside this genetically-enhanced embrace.

I looked up at him, surprised. He had definitely opened up emotionally in the past hour or two, but this was a complete turnaround. He only shrugged.

"It seemed like the right thing to do." He said, a grin tugging at his lips. I rolled my eyes, but nevertheless stayed put.

Here we were. On the shore of a lake in God-knows-where. A complete flock, seven in total. Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge were lying next to each other, wearing their first truly peaceful expressions I had ever seen.

Ig and Kae had flown together to watch the end of the sun set from the tree tops, and were just returning now.

I sat next to Fang, one of his wings still stretched around my shoulders.

My thoughts began whirring.

Where were we headed? To the President, eventually. But would he believe us? Would he dismiss it as a joke? Would the press hound us? Would we be taken for testing? Would we be split up?

As these thoughts ricocheted in my mind, I motioned the Flock around me. We formed a half-circle, the ends standing right by the lake. I stood at the head, with Fang at the left and with his arm snaked reassuringly around my waist. Iggy stood at my right, with Kae next to him. The younger kids formed the edges.

"Listen, guys. Things are really gonna change from now on. We will eventually settle down somewhere, probably go to school, and live like kids were meant to. The chasing is over, the fear is over. But we are still a family. We've been through more than most other families have, anyway. I need you guys to promise me something." I said.

"Anything." Said Nudge.

"Promise me," I began, my warm tears leaving tracks on my cheeks, "promise that we will stay together. I know we aren't going to live together forever,--"

"Why not?" demanded Angel. I sighed.

"You going to grow up, sweetie. Find someone you want to spend the rest of your life with." Fang squeezed me tighter at these words. I saw Kae lift Iggy's fingers to her mouth to show him she was smiling. "But promise you will never move too far? We've just been together too long to lose contact."

Nudge shook her head. "Max, you don't get it. Without you, we could never have made it anywhere. Before you took charge, we were wallowing in self-pity inside those dog crates. And you got us out."

"We'd be completely alone without you." Gazzy asserted.

"Especially me." Added Kae.

"Max, " Angel continued, "you've done more for us than we could have asked. It'd be pretty ungrateful of us to ever let you forget it." She said with a smile.

After a brief, albeit awkward group hug, we all laid back down on our backs, and closed our eyes.

All of my worries miraculously vanished. Sure, a helluva lot of things could, and most like would, go wrong. But right here, right now, with everyone I've ever truly cared about so near, I realized that if I had them, we could take on whatever life may throw at us.

**And there it is.**

**Now, before I beg you to review, let's discuss the fourth MR, "The Final Warning". Now, James Patterson is my favorite author, and I've read all but 7 of his books. So, with all those including the first three Maximum Ride, it's fair to say I had extremely high expectations. And even if it was the best yet,I would still be let down, if only by the ending. But this fourth book...Okay, to start with, my copy was about 240 pages. Call be dellusional, but long books _always_ make me happier when I start. I'm not saying that short books can't be good or powerful; go read _Night_ by Elie Weisel. What I am saying is that MR is, in my mind, an action book. So unless they were engaged in a war from page one, there certainly wasn't going to be nearly as much action. And, as I finished, I found this to be completely true; almost none. No Erasers, no Flyboys. (I know they were destroyed along with Itex, but I still missed something constantly attacking them; the flock seemed dull and too-human to me to me) The thing that was attacking them--SKIP TO THE END OF THIS RANT IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK YET--was some weird scientisit-robot-human thing. While it was..interesting (as was his good friend/henchmen the Hulk guy called Gorzon), it was not explained in the least, and the Flock seemed too accepting of what he was doing. As if they knew the plan all along. And I don't think this is some foreshadow, my friends. And that doesn't even go into the Flock gaining their powers.**

**Okay, fine. We've all been wondering when Nudge/Iggy/Fang will get some sort of a power. Nudge, making metal things come to her. Okay, fine. Interesting, and should prove useful in special situations in the future. Iggy, kind of can see and feel colors. Okay, this I liked. While I hate the 'Yay Iggy can magically see things' in fanfics, Patterson really did that well. I guess that's why he's one of the greatest authors of our time. But then we come to Fang. (big sigh here) Look, what is the most obvious, cliche, logical yet so logical it's boring, power for a dark, silent, and unemotional person? INVISIBILITY! Oh, I'm sorry--he can only blend into his surrondings when he's not moving. My bad. Ahhh when I read that I cringed at the clicheness--if that's a word. Again, another example as to why the book felt HOLLOW.**

**Anyway, I COULD truly go on forever. So I only have one more point (though this rant is for my own purposes, not really for my readers so I don't know who I'm talking to.)**

**The characters. New and old. Completely hollow in my opinion. The Flock had some substance, but thats only due to the fact that they had three previous books that we could go off. All the new scientists on the boat seemed so boring--not to mention the Brigid/Fang thing. It was so obvious, why did he (Patterson) do that?**

**But now, the good parts. In my mind, I have two. (1)The overall message. I consider myself very active against global warming, and I really appreciate James Patterson making this his basis. It's a huge problem, staring us in the eye and waving at us, yet too many people take the easy road of walking away. By simply advertising this to the many readers Patterson has, he certainly helped out. (2) Max's poem--absolutele hilarious. A few minutes after I put this chapter up, you can read it in my profile. That, and other moments, really had me laughing out loud. Sadly, they didn't puncutate the story like they used to--only sort of keep it alive.**

**Well, anyway, the point of that whole rant (that actually might be longer that the chap itself--just kidding) was to say read the book, of course. You'll understand all the new fanfics out there. But DON'T buy it. At least not in hardcover. Get it at a library, or split the cost with a few friends. It's the first James Patterson book I've read that was not worth every cent I paid for the new, hardcover edition.**

**Back to why you're actually here. My story.  
So, epilogue? No? Leave a review with your thoughts.  
Definitely no sequel though. I have ZERO ideas for one. If you have any, do share.  
And so, for the last time, leave a review for either the last chap, or overall story, or my rant (if you bothered to read it.I just re-read it--it's a lot more negative than I meant to write it. Oh well, the words kind of wrote themselves.)**

**Thanks to those of you who stuck with it. As any FanFiction author knows, reviews mean the world. Even if you haven't been reviewing, please do me the favor of reviwing this last chapter.**

_**Ellie**_


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